Jury Selection Set to Begin This Week in Trial of Accused Highway 169 Shooter
Jury Selection to Begin in Jamal Smith Trial
Jury selection is expected to start this week in the trial of the Chicago man accused of shooting and killing a youth baseball coach on Highway 169 in Plymouth.
A grand jury indicted Jamal Smith with first-degree murder last fall. According to investigators, Smith was driving when he allegedly fired and struck Jay Boughton in the head as both traveled on southbound 169 on July 6 last year. Boughton, of Crystal, was 56 years old.
Plymouth police described the incident as a traffic altercation that “escalated quickly.” Plymouth Police Chief Erik Fadden previously told CCX News that something as simple as a lane change could have set the shooter off. Fadden called it “one of the most tragic events I’ve witnessed in my 20 years of policing.”
According to the Armstrong-Cooper Youth Baseball Association, Boughton was headed home with his son from a 15U-AAA baseball game against Coon Rapids. After the fatal shot, Boughton’s car went off the road and through a fence before crashing into parked cars at an apartment complex on the 3900 block of Lancaster Lane North. His 15-year-old son was in the passenger seat and called 911.
Jay Boughton was a coach for the Armstrong Cooper Youth Baseball Association.
In a previous court hearing, Smith claimed it was a passenger in the defendant’s rented SUV who fired the fatal shot.
Smith has remained in the Hennepin County jail held on $3.5 million bail ever since he was transported there following his arrest last August in Decatur, Ill.
Back in May, the Armstrong-Cooper Youth Baseball Association honored Boughton on opening day at the Crystal Little League fields.
Also See: Jamal Smith Defense Seeks Case Dismissal, Trial Date Set for June 27
